Project work for UG/PG life science students for academic year 2017-18

Third batch of  Project work for UG/PG life science students for academic year 2017-18 has been started from 19th August 2017.

Late registration is allowed till first week of September.

Register at: http://goo.gl/forms/rHi8gypfxGyzQ03C2

Chronobiology outreach programs for all age groups and background

Select the programs / workshops suitable for you

Most of the programs start every year in August. Can be personalized if sufficient number of participants are avaialble.

1) Project work for higher secondary school children

- Observation of cyclic phenomenon in nature

- Appreciating all living matter undergoing rhythmicity

- Report writing on cyclic activities in humans

2)  Project work for UG / PG life science students

- Chronotype analysis of predefined population

- Statistical analysis of biological rhythmic data

- Report writing on data analysis and interpretation

3) Workshop for life science teachers

- Lecture series on basics of chronobiology

- Designing of experiments in chronobiology

- Incorporation on chronobiology in curriculum

4) Workshop for professionals with odd work schedule 

     [IT professionals/shift workers/frequent flyers]

- Lecture series on basics of biological clock

- Guidance on synchronizing external / internal clock

- Circadian rhythm in health and disease

5) Consultancy for patients with metabolic disorders

- Chronotype analysis and counseling

- Clock genes analysis and counseling

- Chronome analysis

Announcement of Project Work for Academic year 2017-18

           Institute of Chronobiology Education & Research 

(जैव-चक्रीय आवर्तन प्रशिक्षण आणि संशोधन संस्था)

                                                                                                                      

Final year project work for UG & PG life science students

Chronobiology

Chronobiology is a multidisciplinary branch of science dealing with study of biological rhythms. The free-running biological rhythms reflect the endogenous mechanisms of cyclic temporization whose expression is morphologically seen as an internal clock called body clock.

Biological rhythms

All levels of biological integration, such as ecosystem, population, group, individual, organ-system, organ, tissue, cell, and subcellular structures exhibit rhythms with diverse frequencies. The periods of most of the documented biological rhythms match with that of any one of geophysical cycles present in the nature such as ultradian, circadian, infradian or circannual rhythms. 

Genetics of biological rhythms

There are at least nine clock genes that play key role in the mammalian body clock.  The temporal effect of genetic programming on genome is known as chronome. A branch of chronobiology dealing with chronome analysis is called chronomics.

Chronobiometry

Chronobiology can be studied either by use of model systems or by means of autorhythmometry. Chronobiological data is analyzed by inferential and non-inferential chronobiometry. Bio-rhythmic data analysis requires special statistical tools due to its complexity.

Chronoptherapy

Chronobiological approach of disease diagnosis and management has a lot of untapped potential. We need sufficient clinical data to validate this hypothesis. Most of the life style diseases that we face today have circadian disruption as the major reason which is not at all considered during prognosis.

Project details

Registration options:

By Phone/Email/Registration by filling out the form at link: http://goo.gl/forms/rHi8gypfxGyzQ03C2

Duration:  12^th August 2017 – 12^th May 2018

Nature of project work

Seminars – one interactive session / week on Saturday 4 – 6 pm

Data collection / analysis – Minimum two readings per day for six months on self and/or on volunteers.

Midterm and final evaluation – Open book test

Project report submission – Data compilation and interpretation

Course content (2C / 30 lectures)

Introduction to Chronobiology (5), Systemic of circadian system (7), Relevance of rhythmicity in human welfare (4), Chronobiometery (5), Nasal cycle (7), Biological rhythm as diagnostic tool (2)

Literature

Seminars, PPTs, Videos, Research articles

Reference book: Chronobiology – Biological timekeeping; Edited by Dunlap, Loros, & DeCoursey

Fees: Not uniform / based on interview with the Mentor

Highlights

ü  Understanding the dimension of time in biological systems

ü  Firsthand experience of statistical analysis of biological rhythmic data

ü  Work experience at the interface of research and diagnostic application of biological rhythm

ü  Certificate of completion from ICER

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Project coordinator

Prashant S. Duraphe, PhD (University of Würzburg, Germany)

Contact details: 8888810554/02025519099, duraphe@gmail.com,

Institute of Chronobiology Education and Research

Biological Rhythm Research Laboratory is now Institute of Chronobiology Education and Research

Project work in Chronobiology for academic year 2017-18 will start in August 2017

More details will be updated soon.

Chronobiology - A science of biological rhythm

Scope of Biological Rhythm Research Laboratory

-  Project work for undergraduates and postgraduates in life sciences

-  Popular courses / Workshops for various age groups / professionals

-  Consultancy in Chronobiological assessment

-  Chronodiagnosis and Chronomanagement of diseases  

We have so far completed two batches of project work and about to start registration for third batch in June 2017.

We aim to become nodal agency for education, research and consultancy in Chronobiology. 

Biorhythm may be a pseudoscience but Biological Rhythm is definitely a true science with all the attributes of consistancy, reproducibility and accessibility. 

Chronobiological understanding is more relevant today in all speheres of life like never before due to our modern tech savvy life style.   

Unfortunately this subject is not being taught at any level of education at least in India except at few places. 

Biology teachers, Clinicians, Students, and a layperson alike are not aware of role of biological clock in health and disease. 

Misalignment of internal and external clock is the root cause of almost all the somatic and psychosomatic diseases that we face today. 

This blog will have at least one article per month about various aspects of chronobiology. 

Keep visitng...and make habit of analyzing rhythmic behavior of your own body. 

Peeling the layer off of the working of the master clock

Research suggests that an enzyme named glycogen synthase kinase 3 may be an important regulator of your brain’s master clock.

Do you feel more alert at certain times of the day? Whether you are a morning lark or a night owl, most of us have set times when we feel like we are on top of our game. This daily burst of energy is not a coincidence, but rather a function of your internal master clock. We are primed to have more energy and clearer thinking at certain parts of the day while feeling more sleepy and sedated at others. The cells and proteins that make up the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain regulate this individual daily cycle.

What Is the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus?

Coordinating your physiological activity with cues from the external world is a complicated task handled by a small part of your brain’s hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. This tiny organ is made of just 42,000 neurons that receive signals from the retinas of your eyes and communicates the information it receives to the corresponding areas of the brain. The suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN, has rhythmic pulses of activity that function as the ticking of your body’s master clock, cueing other parts of the brain and body to release hormones and other biochemicals that coordinate the sleep-wake cycle.

How are electrical activity and hormones coordinated? Like other parts of the brain, the SCN has a number of proteins that regulate its function. Recent research points to an enzyme called GSK3, or glycogen synthase kinase 3, as one of the most important “gears” of your master clock, acting as a coupler between electrical and biochemical impulses.

GSK3 and Your Sleep-Wake Cycle

When SCN cells are kept alive in a Petri dish, they exhibit distinctive cycles of high and low activity. These cycles follow a roughly 24-hour interval, or circadian rhythm. When in your brain rather than in a laboratory, the cells of the SCN still exhibit a circadian rhythm, but they also adjust activity according to cues from the outside world, such as light. Glycogen synthase kinase 3 appears to regulate this activity. It alters the magnitude of sodium flowing across the nerve cell membranes of the SCN. This flow of sodium, called the persistent sodium current, has increased sodium ions during the day that cause the SCN nerve cells to fire rapidly, creating a barrage of electrical impulses. At night, a decline in the number of sodium ions occurs and activity in the SCN subsequently decreases. GSK3 appears to be regulated by biochemical messengers, which is an important connection between the hormonal and electrical signals that comprise your brain activity.

Chronopharmacology, GSK3 and Setting the Time on Your Master Clock

New chronobiology research on GSK3 may have important implications in the treatment of human disease. GSK3 is the protein targeted by several common drugs. These include lithium, a common treatment for bipolar disorder, as well as riluzole, which is used to slow the progression of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. These drugs are also sometimes used to treat severe cases of depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses.

Because GSK3 has changes in activity over a 24-hour cycle, there is a good chance that it may be more effective to take drugs acting on this enzyme at certain times of the day. Timing medications so they can be more effective and have fewer side effects, a practice known as chronopharmacology, is becoming increasingly common. Modern research has shown that chronopharmacology can affect the treatment of diseases as diverse as hypertension and breast cancer. People taking drugs that act on GSK3 may get more therapeutic effects along with fewer side effects if they take these medications at the right time.

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Our SCN is a tightly controlled master clock that helps regulate the activity of every cell in our bodies through a complex set of electrical and biochemical gears. Research that reveals more about these gears and their functions can be used to more effectively treat devastating diseases and to improve overall health. The next time you feel like you are alert, energetic and on top of the world, you likely have GSK3 and other circadian proteins to thank.

https://www.chronobiology.com/peeling-layers-off-workings-master-clock/

Objective nasal cycle measurement without use of instrumentation

"Airflow through the nasal passages is normally asymmetrical because of alternating changes in nasal resistance in each nostril. The mechanism involves changes in sympathetic tone to the venous erectile tissue of the nasal mucosa; increased sympathetic vasoconstriction causing resistance to fall. The total nasal resistance to airflow remains fairly constant as changes between the nasal passages tend to be reciprocal so that the patient is usually unaware of the phenomenon.....The reason for its existence is uncertain. A simple explanation is that it permits one side of the nose to go through a rest period and recover from the minor trauma of conditioning the inspired air."

For this exercise you'll need to carry around with you a small, clean mirror. You're going to hold the mirror underneath your two nostrils, so that it's just touching your upper lip. Leave it there as you normally inhale and exhale a few times -- don't change your pattern of breathing (see the figure on the left below). This will produce two "clouds" of condensation on the mirror, one associated with each nostril (see the figure on the right below). Judge which "cloud" is larger, left or right, and record that judgment along with the time of day you made it. Sometimes the judgment will be very easy (the differences will be obvious), but other times the differences may be subtle. Also, because the "borders" of the condensation cloud taper off gradually, you're going to have to adopt some criterion for what constitutes "the edges" of each cloud and you'll need to apply that criterion each and every time you make judgments.

Repeat this exercise every 20 minutes during a 12-hour period, so that you'll accumulate a total of 36 pairs of measurements. If it is impossible to make judgments at the appropriate time then do so as soon as possible after that and make a note when that judgment was made. After you've collected your data, plot the results in the form of a graph: time will be plotted along the horizontal axis and "larger nostril" will be plotted along the vertical axis (see example graph below). If you're like 80% of people, the graph will fluctuate over time (meaning that when one patch of condensation is small the other will be large, and vice versa). From this graph you should be able to extract your nasal cycle: this is the duration of time it takes for you to go through one complete cycle of diameter change.

http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/blake/214_F2006/Notes/NasalCycle/NasalCycle.html